2 Kennedys Sent Pleas For Skakel

By LISA W. FODERARO

Published: August 30, 2002

NORWALK, Conn., Aug. 29—
Throughout the trial of Michael C. Skakel, the Kennedy name shone over the case like a dazzling marquee. The news media portrayed the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley as yet another segment in the life of a disaster-prone family -- even though the Kennedys were largely absent from the proceedings.

But in the sentencing hearing today, Judge John F. Kavanewsky Jr. got a plea for leniency from Mr. Skakel's aunt, Ethel Kennedy, who sent a handwritten letter from Hyannis Port, Mass. A typed four-page letter from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the environmental advocate and Mrs. Kennedy's son, formed the cornerstone of the defense's plea for a lenient sentence.

Together, the letters from the two Kennedys amplified testimony given during the trial about Mr. Skakel's turbulent childhood -- particularly the neglectful and sometimes-abusive treatment of Mr. Skakel and his siblings by their father, Rushton Skakel.

In her letter, Mrs. Kennedy, who is Rushton's sister and the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, sought to explain her brother's behavior toward the family somewhat by saying that his wife's ''lingering death to cancer left a bereft and shaken father of seven unable to cope.''

''Instead of discovering joy in his children,'' she wrote, ''he found solace in alcohol, rendering him unavailable to them, leaving his family virtually abandoned.'' Referring to Michael Skakel's struggles with dyslexia as a boy, Mrs. Kennedy said, ''A more sober father might not have dismissed Michael's troubles in school as laziness, stupidity and rebellion but seen the dysfunction for what it was: a severe learning disability.''

She praised Michael Skakel for his ''mental toughness, fortitude, courage and tenacity'' in overcoming his difficult upbringing and alcohol addiction and for his ''sweetness, kindness, good cheer and love of life.'' The letter was signed, ''Out of the depths, but with hope, Ethel Kennedy.''

After the hearing, in which the judge sentenced Mr. Skakel to 20 years to life in prison, Mr. Skakel's lawyer, Michael Sherman, was asked by reporters why the Kennedys had not demonstrated their support by showing up in person today. ''Why didn't we parade the Kennedys?'' he said. ''We're damned if we do and damned if we don't.'' He added that ''that's why we took all the time to read'' the letter from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The letter from Mr. Kennedy, who attended the trial at least once, portrayed Michael Skakel as someone who had surmounted tremendous odds to remain sober and to help others do the same.

''I know Michael as well as one person can know another,'' Mr. Kennedy wrote to the judge. ''He helped me get sober in 1983.''

Michael, he wrote, was a ''small sensitive child -- the runt of the litter with a harsh and occasionally violent alcoholic father who both ignored and abused him.'' He also described how Michael, after a drunken driving accident at 17, was at his father's behest ''kidnapped by four tattooed goons and shipped to reform school,'' where he was ''beaten, tortured and brutalized'' for two years.

''Many people might be poisoned by resentments after such agonizing experiences,'' he wrote. ''Michael has never given in to bitterness. Instead, he has used these episodes to help and heal others.''